No Cannes do: Da Vinci’s a dud, say critics

THE stars of The Da Vinci Code put on brave smiles as they graced the red carpet last night hours after the year’s most eagerly-awaited movie received stinging reviews.

The multi-million-pound film, featuring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou, has been described by critics as “grim” and “lacklustre”.

Opening the annual 59th Cannes Film Festival, Ron Howard’s adaptation of the Dan Brown bestseller also described variously as a “dud,” “unwieldy” and “plodding”.

But that didn’t appear to worry director Howard or his stars as they opened the Cannes Film Festival this evening to the delight of thousands of fans.

Even before its general release on May 18 and 19, the movie generated huge controversy as Christians around the world, led by the Vatican, called for its boycott.

The novel has enraged religious groups because one of its characters argues that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and had a child by her, and that elements within the Catholic Church resorted to murder to hide the truth.

The opening salvos have come from journalists and movie critics, who screened the film Tuesday night, where it opened in Cannes. More trouble is coming from Christian groups in several countries, who are angry with the film’s mix of fact and fiction involving Jesus Christ and Roman Catholicism.

At Cannes, one scene during the film, meant to be serious, elicited prolonged laughter from the audience, and when the credits rolled, there was no applause, only a few catcalls and hisses. Things were no better in the US, where the film screened for critics in New York. The Hollywood Reporter headlined its review, ” Da Vinci Code, an unwieldy, bloated puzzle.”

“No chemistry exists between the hero and heroine, and motivation remains a troubling sore point,” wrote reviewer Kirk Honeycutt, panning Tom Hanks’ “remote, even wooden performance.”

For those who haven’t read the book, The Da Vinci Code proposes Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married, had a child, and that a powerful organisation linked to the Church conspired to commit murder to keep it secret. Those assertions are exactly the fuel that is igniting protests by Christian groups, some of which have already criticised the book.

Opus Dei, an influential Catholic organisation that is one of The Da Vinci Code’s villains, asked for a disclaimer to be added to the film. None was forthcoming. The organisation say the depiction of Opus Dei is inaccurate. “Those who do further research and exercise critical judgment will discover that assertions made in The Da Vinci Code about Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene, and Church history lack support among reputable scholars,” the statement said.

Brown himself does not purport that the novel or movie are historical or theological fact on The Da Vinci Code’s website. “This book is not anti-anything,” he writes on the site. “It’s a novel. I wrote this story in an effort to explore certain aspects of Christian history that interest me.

In India, the government put a temporary hold on the movie’s release because of complaints and Joseph Dias, head of the Catholic Secular Forum, began a hunger strike in downtown Mumbai. In Thailand, Columbia Pictures has appealed a ruling by Government censors to cut the final 10 minutes. Philippine censors approved an adult rating for the movie but stopped short of rating it “X”.

Also, while not planning a protest or boycott, members of the National Organisation for Albinism and Hypopigmentation expressed unhappiness with the film’s heavy, a monk-assassin, being an albino, as described in the book.

Michael McGowan, an albino who heads the organisation, said The Da Vinci Code will be the 68th movie since 1960 to feature an evil albino. People with albinism have little or no pigmentation in their skin, eyes and hair.

After making its print debut in 2003, The DaVinci Code has since sold more than 60.5 million copies.